George Osborne facing flipping inquiry

It has concerned me, as a possible returnee to the Conservative fold, that David Cameron saw fit to keep his shadow cabinet from the wolves yet was glad to let the so-called grandees fall on their swords. He knows that several were extremely naughty boys when it came to dipping their hands in the expense pot.

George Osborne is now facing an inquiry by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner into aspects of his expenses claims. He is accused of claiming for mortgage payments "that were not necessarily incurred". The chap who complained about Osborne is Laurie Burton, the chairman of the local Labour Party in Mr Osborne's Tatton constituency. He says, "I share the outrage and anger of the great majority of people in this country, of all political persuasions, who have seen what has gone on in Parliament, who don't like what they see and like even less the fact that some MPs just refuse to accept what they have done and refuse to pay any money back."

I can't really fault that. It is a great pity that David Cameron allowed things to pass with a degree of favouritism. There is an element of Blairite superiority here, a kind of riding roughshod approach. Perhaps Osborne is in the clear, perhaps not. But it all seems a little unfair on people like Sir Peter Viggers, who was pilloried for his duck house claim, a claim that was actually rejected.

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